Quotes James Francis Byrnes
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'Byrnes Tries Ridicule.

Senator James F. Byrnes [Dem. S.C.], a New Dealer who is running for re-election this year, attempted to ridicule Senator Dickinson's charges and refused to be interrupted while doing so. Senator Dickinson, however, managed to get in the retort that "you can't laugh away this evidence taken by your own NRA authority.

Calling Senator Dickinson "my candidate" for the Republican presidential nomination, Byrnes chided senators Arthur H. Vandenburg [Rep., Mich.] and William E. Borah [Rep., Idaho] for not discussing "dog food, the issue in the coming campaign."

"The senator from Iowa, my candidate, has discussed the issue fearlessly and eloquently," Byrnes said, effecting general merriment. "There could be no more burning issue than dog food!"

Reads from Prepared Release.

Byrnes then read extracts from a prepared release on Senator Dickinson's speech, issued by the Republican national committee, and said "the real issue is not canned food but canned speeches." He demanded that Senator Dickinson produce some of the dog food, which the prepared release had described as being on his desk when the speech was delivered.

"Its in my office," replied Senator Dickinson.

"Mr. President, I hate to hear that the senator has been storing dog food in his office," Byrnes remarked, "I didn't know he had been eating it. I hope it is fit for human consumption."'

Quotes Lester J. Dickinson
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'Washington, D.C., April 27. - [Special.] - Senator Lester j. Dickinson [Rep., Ia.] in a speech today charged that human beings, under the "planned scarcity" of the New Deal annually are consuming 100 million pounds of dog food - "food unfit even for dogs to eat!"

Dickinson supported his charges with abstracts from a hearing before the NRA code authority of the dog food industry, held in Washington more than a year ago. He quoted L.J. Becker, former secretary of the National Dog Food Manufacturers' association, as estimating that one fifth of the entire output of dog food in the United States, 500 million pounds, is eaten by human beings.

Quotes Roosevelt on Plan.

"I understand prosperity is here" Senator Dickinson declared at the beginning of his address. Then he quoted President Roosevelt's declaration: "We planned it that way - and don't let anybody tell you different." The senator maintained that is is only when a majority of the people have enough to eat that "prosperity" or "recovery" really is here, and in support of this contention he again quoted President Roosevelt.

The President, speaking at Atlanta last Nov. 29, declared that the average of our citizenship lives on a "third class diet" because "the masses of the American people have not got the purchasing power to eat more and better food."

Byrnes Tries Ridicule.

Senator James F. Byrnes [Dem. S.C.], a New Dealer who is running for re-election this year, attempted to ridicule Senator Dickinson's charges and refused to be interrupted while doing so. Senator Dickinson, however, managed to get in the retort that "you can't laugh away this evidence taken by your own NRA authority.

Senator James F. Byrnes... demanded that Senator Dickinson produce some of the dog food, which the prepared [press] release [relating to his speech] had described as being on his desk when the speech was delivered.

"Its in my office," replied Senator Dickinson.

"Mr. President, I hate to hear that the senator has been storing dog food in his office," Byrnes remarked, "I didn't know he had been eating it. I hope it is fit for human consumption."

The Iowa senator charged the New Deal with double responsibility for the conditions under which human beings eat dog food - the "scarcity economics" of the AAA and failure on the part of the agriculture department to enforce the pure food and drug law. Only 15 of the 200 plants manufacturing dog food are under regular inspection by the department, he said. He called the character of the uninspected product one of the most alarming facts of the present situation.

"It comes from two sources - carrion, made from dead animals, or else from the diseased lungs, livers, and fibrous tissues which make up the refuse from slaughter houses," the senator declared. On the farm and around the stockyards it is known as tankage. Before this bonanza in dog foods began it was used exclusively in the manufacture of fertilizer, and that is all it actually is fit for."

One reason why human beings eat such stuff, Senator Dickinson declared, is because "an administration which boasts of its humanitarian purpose... permits shipment of offal in interstate commerce and permits its flagrant mislabeling as 'fit for human consumption.' Such is the exact wording which some of the labels carry."

Quotes Government Statistics.

Senator Dickinson said that the department of agriculture estimated that the per capita consumption of all meats in 1933 was 142.9 pounds. In 1934 meat from government slaughtered animals, such as was not destroyed, increased the consumption to 152.6 pounds. But, added the senator, "only last year did the true results of the policy of scarcity become apparent.

"Meat consumption went into a tailspin. The department has not yet released its figures for 1935, but, by applying the percentage change in production of federal meats to the total consumption in 1934, which is the identical method the department has used in the past, we find that total per capita consumption dropped to 126.7 pounds. And remember, during 1935 this country imported no less than 346 million pounds of meat in addition."

Declaring that during the past three years the standard of living of the American people has progressively declined to new lows, the senator asserted that "every gangster, every counterfeiter, every dope peddler, now incarcerated in a federal penitentiary, not only lives better, but actually has twice as much to eat as the average of our free citizenship in this year of Roosevelt, 1936. . . And remember that the President spoke only of the general average. Many a good American - too proud to accept government help - is trying to last out the Roosevelt 'prosperity' on a daily ration of potatoes, and the administration did its best to take the potatoes away from them!"

The 15 manufacturers coming under government inspection and who produce a pure food Senator Dickinson named as follows:

Armour & Co., Chicago; Chappel Bros., Rockford, Ill.; Foell Packing company, Chicago; George A. Hormel & Co., Austin. Minn.; Illinois Meat company, Chicago; Loyal packing company, Chicago; Modern Food Products Company, Philadelphia; John Morrell & Co., Ottumwa, In.; Rath Packing company, Waterlool. Ia.; Rich Products corporation, Rockford, Ill.; Republic Food Products, Chicago; Rival Packing company, Chicago; Schlesser Bros., Portland, Ore.; Swift & Co., Chicago; Wilson & Co., Chicago.

Quotes Codes Officer

Senator Dickinson quoted from the record these remarks of Charles Wesley Dunn, executive secretary of the dog food code authority: 'When I first came to this position as investigating the dog food business one of the first things I learned that this phrase 'fit for human consumption' was actually working out to induce, according to reports I received, the consumption of dog food in different parts of the country by human beings, and I was informed that some of the dog food which was being so consumed was not fit for human consumption."

C.P. Rich of the Rich Products corporation, Rockford, Ill. testified: "I believe the government department of agriculture has evidence that a great deal of canned dog food is being used for human consumption. From our own experiences, we are sure that canned dog food is being used for human consumption."

P.M. Chappel, of Chappel Brothers, also of Rockford, testified: "I think that the department of agriculture has some figures on this. I do not know if these gentlemen have been familiar with this or not, but there have been some tests made of districts and I was notified that in one ally there were 68 cans and there was not a dog on the block. I wanted to check up on some of them and I made some tests of our own in Chicago, and I was quite astonished at the number of people that were canning dog food."'